by Marina Bassi | Nov 26, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
Each year from 16 to 22 September, more than 2.000 European cities sign up for European Mobility Week, an annual campaign on sustainable urban mobility financed and supported by the European Commission. Even if political commitment at the local level is an essential requirement to join the initiative, the success of EMW really depends on the enthusiasm of thousands of citizens that get involved in a range of public events, such as bicycle masses, car free days, walk-to-school initiatives and many other public activities promoting sustainable and active travel. This year the week saw a wide range of activities, including concerts, workshops, and art competitions, all celebrating the role sustainable mobility and better usage of land can play in enhancing quality of life. The success of the week and the continued success of the European mobility week campaign is cause for great positivity, pointing to an acceptance of sustainable mobility and a desire on the part of citizens and local governments to enhance green transport. One of the reasons why people are inspired by urban mobility – according to European Commission studies – is that nowadays, the majority of Europeans live in urban areas, and all of us want to move around in an efficient, affordable and comfortable manner. At the same time, we also dream of living in a place with lots of parks and green space, where children can play safely, where the air is clean, where you can walk to do your shopping and where businesses can prosper.
Moreover it is not just a green dream, actually it is the real interpretation of Declaration of Rio (1992). As far as the declaration is concerned, we immediately could notice the Principle I : “Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature”. People are at the centre of sustainable development and, in this regard, Rio promised to strive for a world that is just, equitable and inclusive, and committed to work together to promote sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development and environmental protection and thereby to benefit all, in particular the children of the world, youth and future generations of the world without distinction of any kind such as age, sex, disability, culture, race, ethnicity, origin, migratory status, religion, economic or other status. The global nature of climate change calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions. Each country has primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and the role of national policies, domestic resources and development strategies cannot be overemphasized. Developing countries need additional resources for sustainable development. There is a need for significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources and the effective use of financing, in order to promote sustainable development (for more information: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/).
The success of the campaign can be mainly attributed to the involvement of civil society. Together with local administrations, they translate the Mobility Week message into a diverse range of positive, creative and fun activities that attract the interest of the media and the general public. Without the active support from NGOs, public institutions, parents, teachers, schoolchildren, students, employers, commuters, shop owners, local residents and cities of all kind, the campaign would surely have a much smaller impact. This is one of the reasons why cities that want to apply for the annual ‘European Mobility Week Award’ have to be able to demonstrate how they involve citizens and stakeholders.
See also : Participants from Italy
by Marina Bassi | Nov 25, 2014 | Governance labs, The Urban Media Lab
Mantua – November 26th/27th. The local Chamber of Commerce, the City of Mantua, the Province, local ONGs, SMEs and knowledge institutions, such as the Mantua University Foundation and some local schools are glad to support the two days event that will take place in Mantua.
The main objective of the Festival will concerns the conception of a prototype of an institutionalizing process to run the city as a collaborative commons and therefore as a “co-city”. A co-city should be based on international collaborative governance of the commons whereby urban, environmental, cultural, knowledge and digital commons are co-managed by the five actors of the collaborative governance – social innovators, public authorities, businesses, civil society organizations, knowledge institutions through an institutionalized public-private-people/community partnership. This partnership will give birth to a local p2p physical, digital and institutional platform with three main aims: living together , growing together, making together. The cooperative model endorsed by “Tavolo della Cooperazione e dell’Economia Civile” is based on the innovative features of open dialogue, cooperative system design and mutual sharing. Thanks to the effort of Labsus – Laboratory for subsidiarity the city of Mantua was able to produce a concrete institutional experiment based on the principle of co-working. The call for ideas “Culture as a Commons (La Cultura come bene Comune), launched by the initiative of the city of Mantua, Fondazione Cariplo and Chamber of Commerce of Mantua, gathered a series of brilliant ideas and prospects for the cultivation of a long lasting project: install a permanent structure for a model of collaborative governance. The underlying conviction is that such renewed institutional framework could activate and liberate the positive energies of the urban circuit, including the talents and resources of citizens, associations, administrations and social innovators. The new model for collaborative governance is the technological content that the current society needs for promoting growth and sustainability, both in economic terms and as social determinants.
Among the participants during the two-days event, there will be Sheila Foster, Michel Bauwens and Neal Gorenflo, which represent all together the legitimized source for the ignition of an international debate.
Professor Christian Iaione will moderate the debate during the second day.
Further info at:
http://www.promoimpresaonline.it/default.asp?idtema=1&idtemacat=1&page=news&action=read&idnews=195 Brochure festival
by Marina Bassi | Nov 19, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
Responsibility ahead: this is the aim of the meeting organized by Action Aid the next 22th – 23th November in Naples, which will take place in Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, Sala Campanella, starting at 12 AM. Action Aid is an independent international organization committed to fighting the causes of world hunger, poverty and social exclusion. It has long been involved in the development of projects taking into account the needs and priorities of local communities and promoting sustainable and long lasting development. The two-day event, organized within the Universal Forum of Cultures of Naples and Campania, aims at promoting the culture of accountability through two days of meetings, workshops and discussions between institutions, businesses, citizens and national and international experts. The two days will challenge in a participatory manner representatives of all stakeholders of the Neapolitan society, through the presence of experts and professionals that will stimulate the discourse upon accountability. Furthermore there will be a specific focus on modern methods of democratic participation, that will be debated in a round table.Local institutions will be involved in the meeting, as well as representatives of the business community and workers’ associations; in addition the attention will be focused on national and international best practices. The meetings will also aim to improve the relationship between institutions and citizens, by providing an opportunity for discussion and by presenting concrete proposals. The hope is that such debate can plant the first seed for aiming at a future collaboration among citizens and institutions, in the sense of allowing a more participatory inclusiveness of stakeholders in the decision making processes.
Among the participants the Mayor of Naples Luigi de Magistris will attend the event, folowed by the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, Luigi Di Maio, Professor Christian Iaione, director of Labsus – Laboratory for subsidiarity and coordinator of LabGov.
Vittorio Alvino, President of Openpolis will moderate the panel.
The associations that are willing to step in and bring their contributions should send an email to marco.ehlardo@actionaid.org , indicating name and affiliation to any organization.
by Marina Bassi | Sep 16, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
On the past successes of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC) – such as the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Dr. Elinor Ostrom, the University of Alberta – Canada – will still host its XVth Biannual Conference during the May 2015, 25th – 29th . The main aim of this choice is to build meetings by providing valuable networking opportunities for our very global and different membership of academics, communities, NGOs, governments resource people and industry leaders. As in the past, it continues to learn from one another about Commons issues that matter across local, regional and global scales and share that knowledge with new audiences seeking critical discussion on many issues of social, economic and environmental change. As the IASC recommends, <<Commons are forms of governance and governance strategies for resources created and owned collectively. Knowledge commons governance is likely to be key to successfully addressing important social issues in medicine, environmental protection, education, science and beyond. It is critical for us to study knowledge commons and learn how variations and governance affect outcomes: what works, what doesn’t>>. This is the reason why the association will welcome academics, community groups, government resource people, NGOs and commons practitioners from Alberta, Canada and around the world to submit abstracts to participate to the “CALL The Commons Amidst Complexity and Change”. The eight main themes of this CALL will concern I – Defining the Commons: Building Knowledge through Collaboration ; II – The Commons in a Global Political Economy ; III – Food Security, Livelihoods and Well-being ; IV – The Commons in Action ; V – Social-Ecological Resilience ; VI – Dealing with Risk, Conflict and Uncertainty ; VII – The Commons and Climate Change ; VIII – Indigenous Peoples and Resource Development.
